Recruiting Deep Dive: Early Signing

COLUMBUS, Ohio – It was about a year ago when we looked at the state of Ohio State recruiting and determined that the Buckeyes were on the verge of putting together a Class for the Ages.

Those beliefs were later confirmed as Ohio State secured the nation's No. 2 recruiting class according to Rivals.com team recruiting rankings, but more importantly, it was the highest rated class for Ohio State in the Rivals.com era.

Fast forward to today and the Buckeyes are on the brink of maybe even besting last year's mark. Currently, the Buckeyes have one of the nation's top recruiting classes with an average star rating of four, a mark that is hard to maintain, especially once a class gets into double-digit commit territory.

Today we are looking at the new early National Signing Day, well actually the three-day period that the NCAA put into place for late December. Is this a step in the right direction for college recruiting or just a distraction that won't protect the student athlete or noticeably change the college recruiting landscape?

A little history lesson for those who did not pay attention to the recent NCAA legislation. There have been many proponents of setting an early signing period in football, much like college basketball to give schools a chance to sign players earlier in the process and in turn, lock kids down with binding scholarship agreements and keep poachers away down the stretch.